The Ultimate Price

Everything comes with a price, do not pay the price by following another person's dreams, follow God's lead.

The ultimate guide to a person's destiny is to be in the presence of God. When you seek God and follow his lead he will guide you to your destiny.

Leaders are individuals who set their own course.  They follow their gut and do what others are afraid to do even  when it results to being ostracized and labeled by the pundits. 

They are people who love to sell you their dreams. Most time is wasted on doing other people's work or dream. We all can remember at a time in our childhood days when we follow others that looked cool and important and make empty promises but when you attempt to walk alone they brand you as oddballs. 

 The same goes as we become adults. People who walk alone are considered as boring or self absorbed, hopeless thinkers and misfits. 

We are to chart the course God had set for us and remember that His ways are the best and not bother ourselves with the naysayers. They will only delay you for with their own misfortune.

Speak when the time comes

Do not waste time talking to people with small dreams,  love them but keep your idealism entirely to yourself until the right person comes along.

Build up your foundation and save words for later. Never join a speaking contest with bunch of talking heads that only produce words and never actions. Small people with small dreams can only drag you to their small mindset. Dreams and visions are to be cherished by action and not words. They are people who will love to speak negativity and discouraging words towards your endeavors if you let them. As in speaking to them about your dreams and trying to win their approval . Keep all things in perspective and eliminate those who are not able to challenge you to greatness. Eliminate time wasters and people who have small dreams and keep nourishing your dreams until the right people comes along.

Moving forward

Be wise today or tomorrow you will sit down with fools

Whatever you do today will set up your trajectory for tomorrow. 

Time is man's worst enemy because time waits for no man. You can never negotiate with time, once it comes, it goes. If you waste it, you can never get it back. 

So it is imperative not to waste time with anything that has no value to your purpose. Get into the habit of maximizing your time.

Sometimes we waste time waiting for things to happen before we step out of faith. Whether we are waiting for the right time to get situated or some pie in the sky but the truth to the matter is that those times may never come unless we begin to move towards it with a clear intention.

A man who has less can do with less to get to where he's going. There's is a thin line between waiting for the right moment and waiting for things to happen. When we wait for the right moment, we can still continue to prepare for that moment. However, when we wait for things to happen, we aren't preparing ourselves but only being a spectator. You are either moving forward or being stagnant. When you move forward you open other possibilities that you wouldn't have while being stagnant.

 If you're stagnant you will drift back to self-doubt and wishful thinking. So let's go forward and leave all the doubts behind!

Know your limits

Know your limitations,  embrace your uniqueness where you have no limits. (wisdom) *

In Nsukka Nigeria, I played soccer throughout my childhood life. I used to think soccer will be a ticket out for me. I will chase down my father's car when coming back from school and I will picture myself as a winger running through, dribbling and scoring a lot of goals.  I dreamt soccer at morning, day and night. Soccer was my passion. But

when I started growing taller, I wasn't as creative with the soccer ball. I began to loose the ground leverage that most great soccer players have and I totally lost interest in soccer. 

When I came to the United States at the age of 15, I began to adopt the game of basketball. I figured that the money and fame that came with it will give me the sense of passion that the game of soccer did.

And with my height and soccer foot work I will only be required to jump as high and put the ball into the net. I mean how hard can that be? If Hakeem Olajuwon did it why can't I? But with Hakeem, he was about a foot taller than me and has had years of practice; I was just starting.

So I settled at being not a center but a guard until I saw a majestic 17 year old kid named Kobe Bryant who just played the game with so ease and confidant that made me realize that, if I have to play the game of basketball with that much confidant it will require passion and lost of practice. At this time I was 17 and don't have to age of my side , so I gave up in general with sports and joined the military. Now, I don't want to talk too much about my experiences in the military because it is just me threading on too many grounds. The obvious is clear that military was just a place I stumbled into and it gave me comfort which I desperately needed at the time. But my passion slowly died within me. I hated sports and did not want to participate in it. If I can't be the best in it why even bother? I have finally made peace with my limitations. Concerning my uniqueness, I have found my unlimited potential, thanks to the military I was able to charter different pathways that finally landed me to a place where I met 3 believers of Jesus Christ who led me or I would say planted a seed in me to search the scriptures about the one true God. I discovered some truths about scriptures that I was kept away from. Growing up as a Roman Catholic, you hardly read the Bible except being read by a priest on Sundays but mostly God's word was obscured. I later in life began searching for truth and with my inquisitive sense I began studying the Bible after I had made to confession of faith.  I later discovered who God really is and what a relief to know that there is no limitation to where my inquisitiveness will take me. I am finally at peace to know that my unique gift is finding and searching the scriptures and finding out the truth of God's word and wisdom. 

So to many people who are always looking answers and what a message I can give is to know your limitations,  embrace your uniqueness where you have no limits.

Faith

Nothing is impossible for God but impossible for a man who lacks faith.

There's no mountain that you can't climb. There's no limit to where you can't reach if you have faith in God. Stepping out of faith is never comfortable especially when you don't have a whole lot of answers and control about the situation. But with God all things are possible. The problem is that without faith in God and yourself your simply chasing dreams. 

Faith is everything that can cause even the greatest obstacles to crumble. You can achieve so much if you have faith in God and within yourself. So be strong in faith. Trust your instincts and trust God and never ever doubt. 

Life

To know Life you have to be exposed to life. When other birds are busy flying, a caged bird is busy stretching its wings. 

When look back and see the struggles of a young man who practically grew up alone and without much guidance. It resonates within me that life is full of adventures and mysteries. It reveals nothing unless we step out and face it head on. 

I had to meet life head on and I got badly bruised by its storm. But every scar tissue gave me a better perspective. Nothing is easy and it requires sheer dedication and prayer. I am a living witness that you don't always have to have everything together in order to make a giant leap into life phases. You are never prepared. I wasn't prepared to meet every circumstances of life, I was just thrusted into it. The challenges and victories is what makes everything in life worthwhile. 

Success

Celebrate success with very few people. most people that are happy for you are those who have invested themselves in you. When we make the mistake is when we invite people who haven't journeyed with us in our trials and tribulations to celebrate our success. 

This is not wise. When we invite success we also invite jealousy, envy, and strife. People are not fond of seeing others have what they have been striving to achieve but couldn't  because of their own misfortune or limitation. So therefore, success is to be celebrated in a timely manner with timely people lest your enemy will dine with you with daggers and swords.

Stephen

Raising my son

The most difficult moment is letting go of your child whom you have raised and seeing them advance into the new phase of their life. I can remember my son when he was very young and helpless. I will take him everywhere like a handbag in the playgrounds, school, after school programs, church, the beach and hospital for routine checkups. As a young man, I knew my father but he was absent from most of the time and I wanted to be there for my son and cherish every moment of his young life. I came to know the Lord at my late 20's and with that comes the blessings of being a  godly parent and also the challenges as well.  I will sometimes wear both hats since my son's mother wasn't in my son's life often. But now as he grows into adulthood, it is a pleasure to see him mature and becoming more independent of me. He is to grow into his own person and make difficult decisions. My greatest joy is seeing my son becoming a man of God and knowing God for himself. I am really proud of him and I have no regrets of how I raised him. But now I have to learn to release him to the Lord. I believe that part of being a godly parent is not just training your children about God but releasing them to the Lord.

Stephen

My Journey